A few weeks ago, one of the co-founders of Monobank, Oleg Horokhovskyi, expressed his indignation on social networks regarding the pressure from the tax service of the city of Dnipro. He reported on the change of the place of residence from Dnipro to Mykolaiv, which was the result of the constant vigilance of the tax authorities, which periodically reminded about the payment of taxes and created pressure on the businessman.
By coincidence, Eleonora Shkoda was recently appointed acting head of the DPS Main Directorate in the Dnipropetrovsk region. And judging by media reports, with this appointment in one of the regions most targeted by the occupiers, tax pressure can only increase.
Eleonora Shkoda is a tax accountant with experience. At first she worked in the Donetsk region, later she moved to Zaporizhzhia, and in 2023 she received the "fat" position of director of the department of control of excise goods in Kyiv. For the reader's understanding, it should be explained that this department is one of the most profitable, because it closely "cooperates" (in the case of Eleonora Škoda, even too closely) with the players of the "gray" market.
Excise goods are tobacco, alcohol and gasoline. According to experts' statistics, the share of illegal tobacco products in the total volume in Ukraine over the last year reached 20%, which is an absolute record. "Tax losses of the State Budget of Ukraine in 2023 from the illegal tobacco market are estimated at UAH 22 billion," says the Kantar Ukraine study.
The situation with illegal alcohol is no better. Thus, according to the research of the Economic Expert Platform, the share of shadow products in the alcohol market in the first quarter of 2023 was 31%.
According to the media, it was shady players who recruited tax officer Eleonora Shkoda and facilitated her transfer from the DPS in Zaporizhzhia to a lucrative position in Kyiv.
The goal was "correct" control over gray markets. Photo from Eleonora Škoda's closed Facebook profile
Eleonora Škoda's husband also works in the Tax Office. Serhiy Vasyliovych Škoda is the chief state auditor-inspector of the department of inspections of legal entities of the department of scheduled inspections of the Department of Tax Audit. In fact, it is also related to "nightmare" business.
Although the couple shows rather modest declarations, they contain several interesting nuances.
For example, in 2016, Eleonora Shkoda became the owner of an apartment in Donetsk. And this at a time when the city has been under the control of separatists from the so-called "DPR" for about two years. That is, the employee of the Ukrainian Tax Service had to pay for this apartment into the budget of a quasi-state entity. This can be considered financing of separatism, for which criminal liability is provided. In 2018, the Shkod couple bought an apartment in Zaporizhzhia, where they were working at the time.
According to Eleonora Škoda's declaration, the cost of the apartment was 461,000 hryvnias, which is equivalent to 15,000 dollars at the exchange rate of 2018. It is hard to imagine that an apartment in Zaporizhzhia could cost so much in pre-war times. After all, for example, now, when the region is shelled every day, in the same complex where the Skodas lived, a similar property is worth $35,000. However, when Eleonora Škoda moved to a "fat" position in Kyiv, she sold an apartment in Zaporizhzhia and bought an apartment on Sofiyivska Borshchagivka near Kyiv. This happened in August 2023, a few months after the woman was quietly released after searches in the Tax Department of Kyiv and the region. These are the same legendary searches, during which a "wish list" about fur coats, vacations and a million dollars was found in the head of the State Police Department in Kyiv, Oksana Datia.
Well, the very juice of the declarations of the long-term tax employee Eleonora Škoda is the declared winnings in online casinos. In 2021, the woman received 41,000 hryvnias from Gamedev LLC, and in 2023 - 10,000 hryvnias from the Pari-Match gambling company. And here it is interesting, because in 2023, sanctions were imposed against Pari-Match and the company had to stop its activities on the territory of Ukraine.
Now Eleonora Shkoda has been appointed to the position of acting head of the DPS Department in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It can be predicted that the previously mentioned gatekeepers of "gray" business are also behind this. The fact is that Dnipropetrovsk region is the leader among all regions of Ukraine in the distribution of illegal tobacco and alcohol products. According to experts, the share of the region reaches 14%. For those who sit very tightly on illegal streams, their own person in the Tax Office of such a region is extremely necessary.
Eleonora Shkoda was present at the presented research on the level of illegal production in Ukraine in May 2023, where information about the Dnipropetrovsk region was announced. At that time, he was still the director of the excise goods control department in Kyiv. Obviously, she could tell a lot of interesting things to visitors about the level of the "gray" market. Although, most likely, she was sent there as a listener, in order to note down what the experts had dug up.
The tax office in Ukraine is one of the most corrupt bodies. Only the judiciary can compete with it. The situation does not change not because reforms are not carried out. DPS remains dependent on the cash of all kinds of "shadows" thanks to the strange reassignments of people like Eleonora Škoda, who are talked about and known by everyone in the market, but it is difficult to get rid of them.
